Category: Uncategorized

Webasso Bridge to Manatee Pocket (!!!) (anchor)

February 3, 2022

We slept with our portlights open last night for the first time on this trip.  It was lovely to feel the breeze and our anchorage was pretty quiet. We tend to go to sleep fairly early which means we usually wake up early, too.  This morning I took time to watch the sun rise.

We spent another day heading into the wind.  Between the small waves, the wind, and boats passing us going the other way, we had lots of salt spray on our isinglass enclosure.  I miss windshield wipers!

The water is getting prettier.  Somehow it’s changed to beautiful blues and greens.

We need to get a wash down pump so we can clean our anchor and anchor chain…so it’s another trip to West Marine, this time in Stuart, Florida.  We were able to anchor in Manatee Pocket (I am so hopeful we will see one!) and then dinghy to a public dock.

This life is a slow one: we travel about as fast in a day as we would in an hour by car and when we get ashore, we wait for Uber.  I am learning patience daily.

Of note: we have laughed about how many times we have stayed near some sort of bridge or heard a train. The soundtrack of our very first night on Lailia included at least five trains. There’s no bridge here but… we’re hoping that we heard the daily 7:13 train.

https://youtu.be/BqO_irSdY1Q

Tonight’s low is 67°. We’ve dug out our fan so I should be able to sleep. This little pocket is really calm; we’re not feeling any of the forecasted 7 mph winds.

Cocoa, FL to Webasso Bridge, FL (anchor)

February 2, 2022

Muddy, muddy anchor this morning that left lots of mud up on our bow sprit.  The huge clot on the anchor looked like a wasp nest and took some maneuvering to disengage.  Our salt water wash down pump isn’t working at the moment so we’ll have to either get to a marina or wait for rain. The anchorages have been good (meaning the anchors have set) but we miss the sandy anchorages in Georgia. There the anchor came up coated only with water (and not 20 lbs of mud).

This part of the ICW is pretty monotonous: great sweeps of water that’s really shallow on both sides of the dredged channel.  There were plenty of dolphins  and birds but other than that… I am hopeful that we’ll get opportunities to see some sea turtles or manatees as we move south.

Today was slower going: we had a headwind (motoring into the wind). We averaged 5 knots/hour which isn’t terrible but we normally average 6.5 to 7 knots.

Our low temperatures the last few days (and forecasted ones) are way warmer than our high temps last week.

There’s a lot of very shallow water here.  We had hoped to navigate to some mooring balls near a marina this afternoon but we couldn’t locate them by sight and didn’t want to chance running aground, so it’s another night at anchor.  It’s pretty here but I miss walking.

I am very thankful today for “normal things” like a phone call from a friend and even a Zoom meeting conducted while we were underway.  Sometimes our days run together so breaking it up with these interactions is a treat.

We’re not sure where we’ll stop tomorrow – we just know it will be further south!

New Smyrna Beach, FL to Cocoa, FL (anchor)

February 1, 2022

We can feel that it’s getting warmer – we didn’t need our coats this morning (a first on this trip) and this evening we opened up our portlights when we anchored. 

The map below shows how we have to cut through this little canal as the ICW takes a cool turn from the Mosquito Lagoon to Indian River.  The map also shows how narrow the ICW is – we follow that white line to make sure we have enough depth.  The green squares and red “accent marks” are the markers we use to navigate.  (The triangle on the map below is Lailia).

We saw this building in the distance for hours this morning

John knew exactly what it is: NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building, which is the largest single story building in the world and one of the largest buildings by volume.

After seeing it for over three hours we finally got close enough to see the NASA insignia.

We did turn off the engine and raise our headsail briefly.  There’s so much beautiful quiet when we do this but we slowed down considerably so we returned to motoring.

We needed to grab some ice which we forgot to pick up yesterday, so we decided to stop in Cocoa for the night.  Anchoring, lowering the dinghy, finding a place to dock, securing the dinghy, walking to 7-11 and then reversing all those steps to get back onboard takes about an hour or so.  Pretty much everything we do requires a plan and multiple steps. 

We’re probably heading to Sebastian tomorrow so we can stop to see some friends.

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New Smyrna Beach, FL

Monday, January 31, 2022

Life on the anchor is quiet!  We don’t have the power to run our fan at night and because we move with the tide we’re less likely to hear wave slaps.   I did hear an owl (!) at about 3 am which was cool.

We took our dinghy to a public dock where Warren met us.  Since we don’t have a real freezer on board, ice cream is a huge treat.  Strolling through New Smyrna Beach eating ice cream in the sun without wearing winter coats was priceless.

That free dinghy dock had a 4 hour time limit so John moved it back to the restaurant dock we used yesterday.  He grabbed a quick drink there so we didn’t feel as if we were freeloading.

Warren and Linda were kind enough to take us on a supply run after dinner.  We’ve never had to think about getting supplies back to Lailia, since all of our prior provision trips were when we were docked.  The folks at the restaurant were really gracious about letting us carry our haul through at closing time.  Had we been just a bit later we would have been unable to access our dinghy!

We’re heading south tomorrow – hopefully making great time as we did yesterday.  We hope to get to Merritt Island or even as far as Honeymoon Lake, which will be 50-plus miles.

St. Augustine Municipal Marina to New Smyrna Beach (anchor)

We had a cold start leaving the marina this morning but the sun was out so our cockpit got pretty toasty within an hour or so. 

Each stretch of the ICW is different: in South Carolina we traveled through a lot of twisty channels with spartina stretching endlessly.  In Georgia we passed cool islands and sounds (with tidal creeks, too).  Florida has some long, straight sections that remind me of canals.  Today we began to see less spartina and more mangrove type foliage.  The water is also more clear.

The really noticeable change is the number of bridges over the ICW.  Today we passed under 12 of them including four bascule bridges.  Three of the bridges open on request which means we hail them on the VHF radio and wait for directions.  I like the interactions with each bridge tender.  You can hear their personalities.  We did have to wait with a few other boats for the last bridge opening as it has scheduled openings.

We usually plan to travel about 50 miles each day, figuring ten hours at about 5 knots/hour.  Today we averaged over 6 knots and made it over 68 miles to New Smyrna Beach, which is great because we got to spend time with family.

Shore is a dinghy ride away.  We lower the dingy, climb in, and hold on until the motor starts.  After a quick ride, we tied up at a restaurant pier where Warren and Linda picked us up.

We’ll spend tomorrow here and plan to leave Tuesday morning.

St. Augustine Municipal Marina

The sun came out today for the first time in days but it’s still really cold. The wind died down mid-afternoon so tomorrow should be a cold but decent day.

As of this evening, our Breaking Bad marathon is complete.

We are planning to leave tomorrow morning and head to Daytona.

St. Augustine Municipal Marina

Our GPS maps are updated (loooong download time onto an SD card that the Garmin read in two minutes).  This means we have 2022 maps of the ICW instead of ones from 2016.  John also adjusted the water pump (the new one) in efforts to improve the the cycling at low volume.  We also got a pump out and topped off our water tank.

Although we made those preparations, we’re going to stay here until Sunday morning just to shelter from some nasty weather.  Because we’re hooking up to the marina’s electric we can run our little ceramic heaters when the temps drop.  We don’t really have an easy way to power electric heaters when we’re at at anchor, although we do have a built-in propane heater and a small portable one if necessary. We also have good wifi here so we can stay entertained with Netflix. 

We were able to walk around St. Augustine today while the weather was in the low 60s. We spent some time together doing things that we did in our Johns Island life: John got to have some beers at a microbrewery and I got geeky looking at the birds. These small things are our simple joys.

It’s as simple as this: we are happy to be here with one another.

St. Augustine Municipal Marina

Ugh. It’s cloudy and windy here in St. Augustine. Our slip in the marina is fairly well protected by a break water- we can see the spray as it hits the wall. We have some movement in this slip but it’s not awful (look at the difference between the surfaces on each side of the wall in the video).

It’s in the upper 50s today but we expect the temperatures to drop and the winds to pick up over the weekend.

There are few opportunities to anchor in protected areas within our normal daily range of 50-60 miles…and we are well aware of how little we like *robust* winds. We are making decisions about when we’ll leave here.

Our bright spot here is getting to spend time with Abby and Cal, who drove from St. Pete. It’s so cool to love the people your friends’ kids grow to be.

We may get to finish Breaking Bad before the bad weather breaks.

Fernandina Beach, FL to St. Augustine, FL

Much of the ICW in northern FL is a straight line.  It can be a bit boring but boring is ok.  I can bake, exercise, and Zoom as we’re motoring.

We decided to use the sail for a bit of extra speed…not that we were ever speeding or anything. Motor sailing got us up to 7.8 knots/hour. 

The *fun* part was approaching St. Augustine.  The ICW gets a bit complicated: shoaling and lots of waves from where the St. Augustine inlet meets the Mantanzas River. Our sail furler got hung up.

Have you ever had a dream where you couldn’t control your car? Maybe in your dream the brakes failed or maybe the steering wheel became detached. While John was cool and collected, my anxiety was off the charts.

When the water is moving in one direction while the wind is blowing in another it’s difficult to know how much the boat is moving – even if we have dropped the anchor. John was working to untwist lines while I tried to keep Lailia pointing into the wind.

John’s definitely the calmer of the two of us. He got us fixed up and we were able to get into St. Augustine marina tonight.

We’re staying here for a day or two to catch up with a friend, get some groceries, and do some laundry.

Delaroche Creek, GA to mooring ball at Oasis Marina, Fernandina Beach, FL

It’s a gray day but there’s not a lot of wind and the water is smooth.  We are on a mission to get a new water pump and the West Marine in Fernandina Beach has something that should work.  It’s not the same one that we had but John made some adaptations. We have running water again!

Smooth water makes it easier to spot dolphin buddies.  We were also on the lookout for the feral horses on Cumberland Island – and we actually saw one.  There’s no doubt in my mind that my animal call is what brought it into our view. It works for dolphins, gators, and the bobcats at Charlestowne Landing, so…

Although we did not motor very far today, we did make it to Florida.  After West Marine, we actually were able to shower and check out the oldest continuously operating tavern in Florida, The Palace.  Just strolling feels like a treat after all of days on the boat.

It’s lovely sitting here in our cockpit, drinking wine, eating homemade pizza, and listening to music.